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RickB- Human, Artist, Fool.

Ynys Mon, UK.

The blog is called ten percent because of what Kurt Vonnegut wrote when remembering Susan Sontag - She was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.-

And I'm writing it because I need the therapy and I lust for world domination.

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Help Israeli Human Rights Activist Ezra Nawi

7 May, 2009 — RickB

Ezra Nawi has been active for years in the area known as South Mt. Hebron.

Nawi is not a typical rights activist. A member of Ta’ayush Arab-Jewish Partnership he is a Jewish Israeli of Iraqi descent who speaks fluent Arabic. He is a gay man in his fifties and a plumber by trade. Perhaps because he himself comes from the margins, he empathises with others who have been marginalised – often violently.

The Palestinians in this small desolate area in the very south of the West Bank have been under Israeli occupation for almost 42 years; they still live without electricity, running water and other basic services, and are continuously harassed by the Jewish settlers who constantly violate both Israeli and International law, and are backed by a variety of Israeli military occupation forces, all of which operate in an effort to cleanse the area from its Palestinian inhabitants and create a new demographic reality in it.

Nawi’s persistent NON VIOLENT activity in the area is aimed both at aiding the local population in its plight to stay on their lands, but also at exposing the situation in the area to both the Israeli and international public eye. The latter is very much not in the interest of the Israeli settlers who complain that Nawi is disturbing the “status quo” in the area. Nawi has received threats on his life from the settlers in the past. The chief of the investigations in the Hebron Israeli Police once admitted that what Nawi is doing in the area is “exposing the dirt laying under the rug…”

Ezra Nawi’s efforts have been fruitful in the sense that the attempt to cleanse the South Mt. Hebron from its Palestinian inhabitants has become a visible, internationally acknowledged issue.

The settlers, military occupation forces and Israeli police have a strong interest to restrict his movement and ban him from the area. Therefore they constantly falsely accuse him of violating the law. Lately he has been pronounced guilty of assaulting a police officer who was demolishing a Palestinian house on July 22, 2007. He will be sentenced this coming July.

As chance would have it, the demolition and the resistance to it were captured on film and broadcasted on Israeli news. As depicted on the film (a must see), Nawi, the man dressed in a green jacket, not only courageously protests the demolition, but after the bulldozer destroys the buildings he also tells the border policemen what he thinks of their actions. Sitting handcuffed in a military vehicle following his arrest, he exclaims: “Yes, I was also a soldier, but I did not demolish houses… The only thing that will be left here is hatred…”

Nawi’s case is not only about Nawi. It is also about Israel and Israeli society, if only because one can learn a great deal about a country from the way it treats its human rights and pro-democracy activists.

Also please consider donating to help defray the legal costs and to support his human rights activities. HERE

PS. The video I find disturbing because the Israeli forces are laughing, they are enjoying immensely what they are doing and the power they have. Nowhere in it are any of them injured and their good spirits rather contradict the claims of an assault. Not to mention they have assault rifles against unarmed people and we know they are not shy about using them so the assault charge looks to be entirely spurious and intended to criminalise dissent.

GDAEman are you serious do you really clame israel for the conflict?!?! the soldiers of israel are heroes and they protect their country you should really get some information before you comment look up for sderot on wikipedia its an israeli city who is being bombed for 8 years!!

Your Excellency,
I have been made aware of the case of Ezra Nawi a gay Jewish peace activist who is in jeopardy for being jailed on a charge of assaulting an officer. However video of the incident shows no assault and in fact the border police are in high sprits and are laughing, furthermore Nawi is committed to non violence so the alleged assault appears unlikely. I would ask you enquire as to the status of his case and ensure his trial has been fair and transparent and appropriate leave is given for appeal as the evidence against him appears to be so shaky.

” the soldiers of israel are heroes and they protect their country ”
Israeli spinning at its best. So they are protecting Israel from cave dwellers that live without water and electrictity, weoponry etc, people that are simply living their live on a piece of land Isreal is hell bent on robbing from them? Are you delusional? Once this people have been displaced, their homes destroyed, their land robbed, so angry that they will do whatever they can to get back what was taken from them, yes, then Israeli soldiers will have to defend israelis from the anger of these people. Of course, as it always happens, people like you will then claim that nothing ‘unfairly’ had happened that brought about the wrath of the Palestinians. I don’t know how you can live so dishonestly.

israeli- I suggest you watch the video and hear the heroes laugh as they destroy a home. As for Sderot Israel’s own stats showed the rocketing dropped massively and only increased in response to IDF attacks that killed 100 Palestinians for every 1 Israeli killed, that’s not how I’d define heroism.